<html> <body> Part 4!  You'll note I'm trying to keep each part its own day. (mostly) --------- March 24, 708 CR When Sir Saulius learned that Charles was taking his family to see the pageant being put on by the Magyars he insisted on coming. “Magyars art a filthy people who dost steal children and raise them to their trickster ways,” he declared with as much dignity as he could muster to cover the obvious loathing he felt for them. “Oh you know how much trouble they will get into if they try anything like that. I have already lost one child and will not lose another!” But the momentary heat in his voice had given way to mirth. Charles had assured then his friend with a laugh, “Besides they kept trying to entertain us Keepers all the while the plague was scaring everyone into hiding. And I hear that they won't be leaving until every last one of them is Cursed. That shouldn't take more than another day or two. When else will my children have a chance to see so many strange jugglers, tumblers, and the like?” “We hath festivals here at Metamor with such men,” Saulius had replied with a scowl fixed even to the ends of his whiskers. But, not only did Charles wish to see what the Magyars could do, his children were even more excited by the prospect of the exotic and perhaps a trifle dangerous Magyars. Kimberly had also told them the stories that the Magyars stole children, especially misbehaving children, and so they stayed very close to their parents, their little paws holding to either their father's cloak or their mother's skirt, when not propped in their father's arms. Saulius walked behind them on their way through town, eyes wary for any danger. By midday, the air was pleasantly warm, though a steady breeze from the south suggested that it would rain that evening. The Magyars had arranged their colorful wagons in ranks two deep near one of the inner walls in the Killing Fields, while arranging benches in a semicircle outward toward the row. The assingh, the giant Steppelands donkeys, were set to grazing on the other side of the wagons from the road. Bright pinions, banners, and streamers were hung from wooden poles erected on all sides. They were such a mishmash of colors, red, yellows, blues, greens, and a cornucopia of other unnameable hues, that there was no way to mistake this people for anything but Magyars. Near the entrance, a lithe ferret woman was performing a salacious dance dressed in a patchwork vest and legging that came down only to her shins, revealing all of her ankle and newly clawed hindfeet. Her tunic was little better, emphasizing a modest quartet of breasts stacked in pairs, the edges of which were visible through little breathing slits in her garment. She twirled little batons around her in a complicated dance, each one ending in a streamer that coursed around her body in very suggestive ways, as if they were the hands of a lover caressing her body. Kimberly dragged the children past the beastly Magyar as quickly as she could. Charles blinked in surprise a few times before he felt a death glare and hurried after his wife. They found seats with a good view of the main area between the wagons and the benches; they kept the children between them, the boys next to their father and the girls next to their mother, while Sir Saulius sat right behind them to keep a very stern eye on them and the Magyars performing for them. When they arrived they found seven Magyars, three children, two still human, and a couple who were part beast, all juggling various things from balls, to torches, to knives, to axes. Sometimes they would juggle by themselves, other times they would begin to pass them back and forth, interleaving them through the air so that it seemed everything should clatter in and crash to the ground, but they always missed. Charles couldn't help but be impressed by their consummate skill and timing. Kimberly stared in wonder, and his children all oohs and squeaked their delight, especially when it looked like one of the axes or knives was going to strike a Magyar a fatal blow, only to be snatched from the air at the last moment and sent skyward again. Sir Saulius grumbled in disgust the entire time. Other Magyas performed contortions that made even Charles flinch in disbelief, while still others walked about on stilts taller than a house whilst playing various drums, pipes, and stringed instruments. There were a good number of children running about as well, and Charles couldn't tell which of them were naturally young and which had just entered a second childhood. There were a few women and men amongst the performers who were buxom or broad in a way that suggested they had suffered the gender swapping Curse, but since they were all wearing the same sort of patchwork clothing, trading skirts for the women in place of baggy-legged trousers for men, it was hard to tell if they were even Cursed or not. But about a quarter of the Magyars were unmistakeably like the Metamorians now they were were clad in fur, scale, or feather. Charles's children oohed at all of the displays, and when a pair of ladies, one of whom was now a dark blue, short-winged, long-legged bird, came past carrying trays full of little morsels, they squeaked and clamored to have a taste. Their father made sure he paid for every last bite lest the Magyars feel cheated, and even tried to buy some for his knight who would have nothing to do with it. Pastries with bits of meat, cheese, or even potato greeted their noses and tongues, while they were given to drink fresh milk from the assingh. It had a thick creamy flavor that Charles found a bit too strong for his taste, but in short gulps it washed down the pastries well enough. Keepers of all sorts came to watch, though the few Charles knew to be well-to-do merchants were careful not to bring much money or finery with them. Soon enough they had an ever changing set of neighbors on either side of them enjoying the performances with them. Even the other rats showed up later that afternoon though they were forced to sit elsewhere. Charles was amused at the way they artfully dodged the Magyars coming to offer them vittles by moving around the crowd even faster. As they passed behind him, he caught a glimpse of why – both Julian and Goldmark were carrying rather sizable money pouches on their hips. It seemed that their wagon-sleighs were rather profitable already. It was difficult to keep the children still for very long, as they wanted to jump off the benches, scamper forward, and start playing with the Magyars, especially the Magyar `children' who were juggling and tumbling. Every time one of the children looked ready to bound out of their seats, Sir Saulius would say, “If thou dost play with them, thou may ne'er see thy mother and father again!” Kimberly would scold the knight for scaring her children, but never too strenuously as it was clear she worried about it too. Charles just stroked his boys between their big ears, and then did the same for his girls to sooth their excited but suddenly frightened nerves. By the time the afternoon rolled around, all of the Magyars gathered together and started their pageant. Each of them took on various roles, with lots of intricate costumes to make monsters of antiquity appear on the field. An older man now sporting graying feathers and the spindly body of a stork narrated a tale of romance, treachery, great battles, and woe. It was set in ancient age, out of the very legends of the Steppe, the Åelfwood, and Vysehrad. One of the principle heroes was in fact the great hero of that era, Pelain of Cheskych. Suitably, the Magyar portraying that ancient knight had been transformed into a wolf with a regal mane of silvery-gray fur. Charles wished that Jessica were there so she could see this and comment on how close he behaved to the man she met in the Imbervand. Now that the Magyars were telling a story instead of merely performing tricks and wild antics, the children all settled down and watched with rapt fascination, ears tilted forward, eyes wide with wonder. Little Erick swung his arms as if he were wielding a sword and he was Pelain battling off hordes of golden monsters coated in scales and fur. Little Bernadette and Baerle kept asking Kimberly if the heroine, played by a Keeper who must have been a man a week ago but now was a svelte and stout woman with eyes as blue as a bird's and a face both soft and stern as if weathered by the Steppe winds – and her chest was prodigious enough that many a Keeper's eyes never even noticed her face – was going to marry Pelain or when Pelain would rescue her from the villainous horde or the enigmatic elves, both of whom at one point had this radiant beauty in their control for their own ends. Of course, there were also Magyar characters in the tale, mostly a brother and sister, one of whom was played by the same four-breasted ferret that had greeted them when they arrived; she also drew the wandering eyes of the men, and the baleful glares of the women. The tale and performances were so engrossing that even Sir Saulius leaned forward in his seat to get a better view. And when the brother Magyar suffered a very tragic death in order to save his sister from one of the golden demons, he had to fight back his noble gorge. Kimberly didn't cry, but many of the other women watching were dabbing their faces and snouts. Little Bernadette and Baerle were tugging on their mother's sleeve and asking her in quiet voices if the brother would be okay. She assured them that he would even as the actor spent the next five minutes dying in as dramatic and overblown way as possible. By the time the performance came to an end, clouds from the south had covered the sky and the threat of rain was quickly becoming a reality. Charles and Kimberly scooped up their children, and with Sir Saulius and the other rats close behind them, headed straight for the Keep. Goldmark offered to carry the children on a taur back, and Kimberly gratefully deposited both girls there once their friend had changed. Which of course meant that Charles also had to become a taur to carry his boys. For the sake of propriety he ducked into an alley with the other rats forming a wall to guard his modesty. It was the only pause on their way back through Keeptowne, and it proved one pause too many, as less than a minute before they reached the Ivy Causeway and the safety of the Keep's walls, the sky opened and poured its contents in thick sheets down across the Valley. The Keep was kind to them and led them quickly to Long House, where all of them gathered around a large fire in the Matthias home there. The children barely waited to be dry before the boys started arguing which of them was to be Pelain and which the brother, while the girls tried to settle on who was the sister and who the yearning of Pelain's heart. As Kimberly tried to get them to take turns in each of the roles, Charles turned to Sir Saulius who held his tabard closely over his chest as they huddled around the hearth drying. Neither Charles nor Goldmark had bothered changing back to a two-legged stance and so they reclined at either end, allowing one side each to be warmed by the flames. “Now that wasn't so bad, was it?” Sir Saulius's snout took on a disquiet moue. “They art very talented in many different ways.” He narrowed his eyes and his whiskers lowered. “I dost too love the tale of Pelain and the demon horde of Kolovrat. I hath ne'er heard it since my youth.” In a softer voice he added. “But 'twas brother and sister from a horse clan and not Magyars that didst come to great Pelain's aid!” The other rats chuckled at their friend's bruised pride, but none said word against it. Hector and Elliot turned to watch the children playing, while Goldmark took a brush and began to work over his long back, and Julian opened his money pouch to quickly count his coins. Charles noted the latter and asked, “How does your business fare, Julian?” “Very well,” the white furred, red-eyed rat replied. He closed his pouch and then smiled. “The plague and the fate of many of the merchants who'd been trapped at Metamor only to suffer our fate, has helped convince many of the foreign merchants to use our services to ship goods into and out of the valley. Two days ago we bought an old Inn and stables in Laselle that had been run down. We're converting it to apartments for our drivers and for our factors there, and in another few months we'll have built a warehouse as well to store goods as they are readied for transport. And while Keeptowne and Euper were under quarantine, our shipments across the Valley turned quite a bit more profit than we expected. We just didn't see any of it until the quarantine came to an end!” He laughed and then stretched his arms wide. “I do wonder how long it will be before many of those merchants come back here; they've nowhere else to go.” “Thou shouldst not take joy in that terrible time,” Sir Saulius chided, the moue having never left his snout. Julian lowered his arms and wrapped his paws around the end of his tail, rubbing the tip with his thumb. “I know. I knew somebody who died from that infernal plague. But it does no good to castigate ourselves for the good fortune we receive even when another suffers.” “That is very true,” Charles said. He stretched the toes on his forelegs, and then shifted a little to let the warmth sink into his other side, taking care to hold his tail to keep it from accidentally sliding into the fire. “And I know you better than that, Julian, but it does seem a bit unseemly to talk of how good the plague was for your business.” The frown on Julian's snout deepened and he narrowed his eyes. “I'm not going to apologize for our success, Charles. I wish it hadn't come this way, but I'm not going to apologize for it. I'm excited that we have met with such good fortune so soon. We may not fight with swords, but merchants fight nevertheless, and the combat is brutal and unforgiving. One day you may have money trickling off your nose, and the next you can be selling the shirt from your back to pay off creditors as rapacious as sharks!” Elliot and Goldmark looked a little embarrassed at their partner's vehemence, and the former was quick to add, “We don't want to be sharks ourselves, Charles. The more business we can create, the more wealth we can bring to Metamor. Tell him what we did yesterday, Julian. That was a wonderful sight.” “Ah, yes,” Julian said with a nod and a renewed smile. “We took a goodly sum of the profits we'd made and gave them to the nuns, and then we offered a gift of supplies to Healer Coe. We may not have been able to save any lives from the plague, but don't for a moment think I'm not grateful to those who did!” Charles held up his paws and shook his head. “I am not angry with you, Julian.” “Nor I,” Saulius interjected. “I just felt uncomfortable. You know what I had to face because of that plague.” He turned his gaze to Kimberly who had managed to get the children to finally agree. They were now acting out some of the scenes from the pageant but mostly just bonking each other on the head with their chewsticks. Julian caught the glance and then took a deep breath, the agitation bleeding from his flesh as the dampness fled from his fur and garments. “You're right. Forgive my thoughtlessness. Is there anything we can do for you? You are our dearest friend, and one of the few I know I could lay down everything for.” The white rat's voice was so sincere that Charles actually wanted to reach out and hug him tightly. But he restrained himself to returning a broad smile. “That won't be necessary. But I do ask that you all come visit us at the Glen more often! We'll be returning there tomorrow and...” “And you'll be riding in one of our wagons,” Julian piped up with a boastful grin. “I insist!” Charles laughed. “As I knew you would. We'd be delighted to accept your offer.” Sir Saulius gave Charles a curious look. “Didst thee not wish to ride Malicon back to the Glen?” “I had not forgotten my steed, oh my knight!” Charles replied with a laugh. “Of course I shall, but I will be riding beside Julian's wagon if not leaning across it the entire way back!” At that all of the rats, his dear friends and those with whom he felt such a comfort and camaraderie that he could not explain, broke into hearty smiles and laughter. No more words were said, nor could they have been, as they turned their eyes to watch the children play while the fire dried the last of the rain's torrent from their fur. ---------- May He bless you and keep you in His grace and love, Charles Matthias !DSPAM:4eff5998115401122247586! </body> </html>